mjzee

Good for Tony Hatch, who will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame: Yahoo News

Thanks for posting that link.

The Dexter's now down to $7.60. Also: Joe Henderson, $7.69; Herbie Hancock, $11.65; Wayne Shorter, $18.61; Art Blakey, $7.60: Any thoughts on this Bill Withers box? Not jazz, exactly, but his hits have a nice feel to them. 9 discs, $23.30 from an Amazon reseller:

Much of this is still protected by copyright...weird.

"Joy of a Toy" was one of my favorite albums. RIP.

FWIW (perhaps not much), from someone more on the periphery of the jazz scene, I think The Giant Is Awakened is better known than Flight for Four (which I've never heard of). If TGIA can be considered "legendary" and "rarely heard," that could contribute to sales. Also promote that Blythe is on it.

Another very enjoyable date. Kenny generously shares the spotlight with an all-star band (Roland Hanna, Jimmy Owens, Jerome Richardson, Steve Turre, Benny Powell) and two vocalists (Jeannie Bryson and Vanessa Rubin):

We should start a thread for "Most Consistent Jazz Artist." For me, it's KB. I know any date he's on will be soulful, swinging and enjoyable. Special mention should be made for last year's "Tenderly," his first (!) solo recording. I'm curious what others think of it. It sounds to me like he's a little out of his element, but is giving it the old college try. Maybe I need another listen. Certainly he deserves credit for pushing his boundaries, esp. at this stage of his career.

I've uploaded the photos I took of the show to Photobucket. These were shot with the highest zoom setting, so many shots are somewhat blurry, but I hope the spirit of the evening comes through. Trio 3 in Houston Password: Eldorado

Just came back from the Trio 3 concert. Nice! Audience of around 250. Good acoustics, esp. after they brought Workman's bass up in the mix. Lake has a fat, powerful tone. Cyrille was just wonderful - he was everywhere, but didn't overpower. They played 2 sets.

I recently dropped my eMusic membership, which I had for many years. I disliked that they discontinued their $25 booster pack, forcing me to buy a $50 booster pack for any type of savings. Also, I've downloaded so much music that I've yet to listen to that seeing the new month come around was beginning to feel like a burden. I'll enjoy what I have; I can always reup.

The Bach Guild's (Vanguard) Big Mozart Box. 13 hours of music for 99 cents: Amazon

Not sure this can be called an "album," but Duke Ellington's early work (through the late-40's, as contained on the 40-cd box set that was around for awhile). I had always found Duke's work too stodgy; it didn't have that rhythmic propulsion or pulse that's in Count Basie's work (and which is one of the most enjoyable aspects of music for me in all genres). It sounded more like society music to me. Also, a 40-cd box set is just too big to digest. What helped for me is iTunes' random listening feature. I hear one track every so often, mixed in with other artists and genres. Through this, I've been able to hear the swing and drive in the many tracks that have that, and the compositional and orchestrating skills in the more "composed" tracks. I now have more patience to listen to his work. I'm still not there on his '50's work - the Columbia box is largely a snoozefest for me. But maybe someday I'll write something similar about that box.

Despite his easygoing presence, guitarist Saul Rubin reveals a contrarian side when contemplating the commercial zeitgeist. Having gone largely unrecognized for much of his performing life, this master of the musical conversation has, at 54, little time for interplay, musical or otherwise, with the single-minded strivers who populate today’s fragmenting marketplace. It’s no small quirk of fate, then, that Rubin’s marketplace profile is receiving the kind of boost money can’t buy, courtesy of a new relationship with saxophonist A venerated cultural figure, Rollins now counts Rubin among the members of his band. But Rubin, true to his skeptical nature, views even that development with some ambivalence. “It’s a paradox,” he said in a recent interview. “All of a sudden I’m Saul Rubin, the guy who plays with Sonny Rollins. It gets me a lot of stuff, but I can’t really pursue my own career as an artist right now.” More here: Forward

I don't think rhythm was his strong point, but he did have a lot of drive. Agreed, a master, and that Mosaic is a classic.

I transcribed this section of the interview: Sidran: There was something different about your little approach there, though...the rhythm in Watermelon Man was a little different. Hancock: I had originally just conceived it as a kind of funky jazz tune. That’s all. But either just before the record was released or just after, I got a gig with Mongo Santamaria. I played with him one weekend.... Donald Byrd and I lived on the fifth floor (of a building in the Bronx), walk up, no elevator...it was in those days. Now, this incident happened in 1963...anyway, I played this gig with Mongo...one night, we played in the Bronx...Donald Byrd and I were roommates, and Donald came by to hear...Donald was like my older brother, and he used to laugh at me a lot, because I was kind of young and green to New York, but he kind of watched over me. So he came by the gig, and between shows, he and Mongo got into this very serious conversation about relationship between Afro-Cuban music and Afro-American music, you know, “slave ships went to both places, where’s that link between the two,” and Mongo had never found it. So I sort of half listened to the conversation, it was a little too heavy for me, and Donald says “Herbie, why don’t you play Watermelon Man for Mongo?” I said “Wha? Play Watermelon Man for Mongo? What’s that got to do with what you...” “Play it.” ‘Cause I conceived of it as a kind of funky jazz tune. So I went and started playing it, and Mongo gets up and says “Keep playin’ it,” and he walks over to his congas. As soon as he started playin’ the congas, it fit like a hand in a glove, just perfectly. And little by little, his band members joined in, the bass player starts watching the notes I was playing with my left hand, and checking out the form, so he picked up the bass line, and then the horn players picked up the melody line, and somebody starts soloing, and little by little, the people...it was a supper club, so little by little, people got up from the tables and started getting on the floor...pretty soon, everybody was dancing, and screaming and hollering, ‘cause they loved the tune. And then, after that, Mongo said “this is a wahira,” which is a type of country song they sing in the mountains. And I said “a wha-what?” I had no idea about any of this. He said “can I record it?” I said “sure.”

Happy birthday!

I think there were three albums from this engagement, two official and one shady:

I'm not familiar with the Savoy material (I assume you mean as a leader). Any suggestions? And are they similar to his work on Prestige?

Also, technical savvy isn't everything. Grant Green wasn't technically sophisticated, but he made some very satisfying records. His solo on Mobley's "Uh Huh" is one of my favorite performances of all time because it moves so much, but I would never say he was an innovator. Still, that doesn't matter to me.

RIP. The likes of Byrd, Lee Morgan, Mobley made some of the most enjoyable jazz. I only hope we can get back to that. In Ben Sidran's Talking Jazz interview with Herbie Hancock, Herbie talked with great fondness and respect about Byrd. There was a great anecdote about Byrd, Herbie and Mongo discussing the roots of Watermelon Man.

The fact is he 'did' become great. And he did it early on. He just didn't devote the rest of his life to following a 'guitar trio' format. He was an innovator (on his instrument at least) and will be recognised forever as such. This is beyond question. Whether you or anyone else likes or is attracted to the contexts (commercially or artistically) he chose to illuminate his guitar genius in, is always subjective. His guitar playing greatness is unquestionable. Lou Donaldson was/is a significant part of a certain kind of Jazz history, but he didn't change the way people played the saxophone. George Benson is part of the historical hierarchy of Jazz guitar playing. Like it or not, care less or not. I do like to ask questions; not much, for me, is "beyond question." You say he became great early on. Could you please list some examples (tracks and the albums they're on)? Please don't say "everything," because that's not really helpful. I'd like to understand more about what you're hearing and referring to. You also say he's an innovator; again, could you please list some specific examples? I'd appreciate it.

You are aware that that Dylan CD is not official? It's a European grey-label release, see this lengthy thread on the Hoffman board, from post #158 onwards: http://forums.steveh...s.305047/page-7 I guessed that. I'm hoping it's taken from the recent limited-edition release.

I don't know it...details?

I ordered mine from Amazon UK, but in the same order as a title with a release date of Feb 25 (Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin Outtakes), so they'll ship the whole order then. I'll receive it in early March. *sigh*